Papers by Tara Schwitzman-Gerst, Ed.D.
“Why am I so obsessed with the white students?”: playwriting as reflexive analysis to trouble white antiracist researcher positionality
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2025
Prior research on positionality has provided frameworks to engage reflexivity, usually in the for... more Prior research on positionality has provided frameworks to engage reflexivity, usually in the form of questions researchers should ask themselves and writing positionality statements. Being well versed in these frameworks, however, did not prevent me from harming Black participants when initially analyzing my dissertation data via coding—a white supremacist analytic method. Bringing together positionality, playwriting, and critical whiteness frameworks, I argue that reflexivity is tied to analytic method. Rooted in the story of analyzing my dissertation data, I show how playwriting troubled the ways coding encouraged scapegoating white students, performing a problematic white antiracist identity, and centering whiteness in my findings. This paper thus demonstrates how playwriting—absent coding—can be used as an analytic technique that demands deeper reflexivity around performative, distorted understandings of white antiracism. The story of analyzing my dissertation data demonstrated that (white) researchers—especially those well versed in critical scholarship—need more robust ways of engaging in reflexivity throughout the data analysis process that consider their motivations for proving antiracist researcher positionalities.
Diversity’s (in)visibility at two Hispanic Serving Institutions: how the whiteness of higher education constrains racially diversifying the K-12 teaching force
Journal for Multicultural Education, 2024
Purpose
Most research about combating the whiteness of teacher education neglects to analyze the ... more Purpose
Most research about combating the whiteness of teacher education neglects to analyze the whiteness of the higher education institutional contexts housing teacher preparation programs. This gap also holds true within research exploring Minority Serving Institutions’ potential to graduate large numbers of teachers of color. Consequently, this paper aims to argue that without strong institutional commitments to dismantle the whiteness of higher education, Hispanic Serving Institutions (a type of Minority Serving Institution) compromise their potential to robustly prepare and graduate K-12 teachers of color.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on an inductive qualitative analysis of interviews with teacher educators of color and students and a deductive qualitative analysis of publicly available data at two Hispanic Serving Institutions, this paper uses Critical Race Theory tenets of lived experience and intersectionality.
Findings
Both institutions enacted diversity commitments. However, findings demonstrated that institutional support neglected the multiple oppressive systems impacting students of color. Additionally, prioritizing (White) research norms invisibilized faculty of color in higher ranked professorial roles and compromised faculty pedagogy.
Originality/value
Findings address lesser known analyses of how the intersections between institutional climate, teacher education programs and the unique Hispanic Serving Institutional context impact student/preservice teacher and faculty/teacher educator racial diversity, demonstrate the necessity of using an intersectional lens when analyzing preservice teacher and teacher educator of color experiences, and demonstrate how racially diverse, multicultural higher education contexts can still invisibilize diversity.
Most research about combating the whiteness of teacher education neglects to analyze the whiteness of the higher education institutional contexts housing teacher preparation programs. This gap also holds true within research exploring Minority Serving Institutions’ potential to graduate large numbers of teachers of color. Consequently, this paper aims to argue that without strong institutional commitments to dismantle the whiteness of higher education, Hispanic Serving Institutions (a type of Minority Serving Institution) compromise their potential to robustly prepare and graduate K-12 teachers of color.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on an inductive qualitative analysis of interviews with teacher educators of color and students and a deductive qualitative analysis of publicly available data at two Hispanic Serving Institutions, this paper uses Critical Race Theory tenets of lived experience and intersectionality.
Findings
Both institutions enacted diversity commitments. However, findings demonstrated that institutional support neglected the multiple oppressive systems impacting students of color. Additionally, prioritizing (White) research norms invisibilized faculty of color in higher ranked professorial roles and compromised faculty pedagogy.
Originality/value
Findings address lesser known analyses of how the intersections between institutional climate, teacher education programs and the unique Hispanic Serving Institutional context impact student/preservice teacher and faculty/teacher educator racial diversity, demonstrate the necessity of using an intersectional lens when analyzing preservice teacher and teacher educator of color experiences, and demonstrate how racially diverse, multicultural higher education contexts can still invisibilize diversity.
“We Still Miss Some of Them”: A DisCrit Analysis of the Role of Two 4-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions in Racially Diversifying the K–12 Teaching Force
Teachers College Record, Jul 1, 2022
Background/Context: Although some research has been conducted on the experiences of preservice te... more Background/Context: Although some research has been conducted on the experiences of preservice teachers of color who attend Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), little cross-institutional, qualitative research—disaggregated by type of MSI—exists on the potential of MSIs to prepare and graduate teachers of color. This article examines how teacher preparation programs and professors at two 4-year public Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs)—a type of MSI—respond to two barriers to the profession for Hispanic and Black students: state licensure exams and being underserved in their K–12 education. Focus of Study: At both institutions, white students were overrepresented, and Hispanic and Black students were underrepresented, in the population of students admitted to a teacher preparation program. Through a conceptual framework of “servingness” and an intersectional theoretical framework, disability critical race theory (DisCrit), I sought to center the voices of students and faculty of color and understand: (a) how state requirements for employment and licensure were incorporated into each teacher preparation program’s admissions criteria, (b) how each program’s admissions process impacted the race and ability/academic achievement of students enrolled in education coursework, and (c) how professors responded to the racial and ability diversity of their students. Participants: Four focal professors (two at each institution) and nine students (two or three in each course) participated. At each institution, one professor was teaching an introductory class—open to any undergraduate student who might have an interest in teaching—and one a methods course—open only to admitted preservice teachers (graduate and undergraduate students seeking certification). Research Design: A DisCrit methodology was utilized to center the voices of multiply-marginalized students and faculty and to analyze their stories in relation to larger systems of power and privilege. Primary data sources—three interviews with the focal professors and one interview with each student—were analyzed inductively. Codes and categories generated from the interviews were used to deductively analyze course observations. To better understand “servingness,” analytic categories were compared between institutions and between course types. Conclusions/Recommendations: Each preparation program responded differentially to state requirements in their admissions criteria, which had implications for both the racial demographics of admitted preservice teachers and how professors (a) responded to students’ prior K–12 experiences, and (b) described which students (of color) had the capacity to be teachers. Recommendations include: (a) examining “servingness” not only across HSIs, but also across different levels of courses, and (b) integrating support—rooted in students’ experiences—throughout teacher preparation.
How Faculty of Color Disrupt the Whiteness of Teacher Education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Proceedings of the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting
We, monsters: an autoethnographic literature review of experiences in doctoral education programs (Kind of)
Advances in Research on Teaching
Abstract In this paper, we take up an autoethnographic review of literature on doctoral programs ... more Abstract In this paper, we take up an autoethnographic review of literature on doctoral programs in order to engage notions of doctoral subjects. While the paper basically proceeds by taking up and entwining these methods, it is neither/both an autoethnography nor/and a literature review. Rather, this work – like many spaces of a doctoral seminar – emerges as an uncontainable, unpredictable monster. We have also placed a kind of “I” at the center of this project, and yet use a posthuman reading of what this “I” might be. We search for a preconfigured “I” in the literature and create an “I/we” of doctoral experiences that never quite exists and yet moves and haunts us. We take up a tentative (post-)monstrous position that recognizes our cruel attachment to the “good” doctoral student, a subject that remains the inevitable (im)possibility of graduate school. Reviewing literature as an ethnographic practice and looking at ethnography as textual helps us smash these methods together. Yet, at any moment, we defy our methods – ignoring findings in the literature and possibly making up autoethnographic stories that never happened to us. Rather than sloppy academic work, this move intends to focus on thinkable and intelligible experiences as those belonging to doctoral students/studies/school instead of focusing on “authentic” experiences of well defined “researchers.” We hope our project provides space to question the very categories and credentials built into doctoral studies by decentering the “doctoral student” subject.
“We Still Miss Some of Them”: A DisCrit Analysis of the Role of Two 4-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions in Racially Diversifying the K–12 Teaching Force
Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education
Background/Context: Although some research has been conducted on the experiences of preservice te... more Background/Context: Although some research has been conducted on the experiences of preservice teachers of color who attend Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), little cross-institutional, qualitative research—disaggregated by type of MSI—exists on the potential of MSIs to prepare and graduate teachers of color. This article examines how teacher preparation programs and professors at two 4-year public Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs)—a type of MSI—respond to two barriers to the profession for Hispanic and Black students: state licensure exams and being underserved in their K–12 education. Focus of Study: At both institutions, white students were overrepresented, and Hispanic and Black students were underrepresented, in the population of students admitted to a teacher preparation program. Through a conceptual framework of “servingness” and an intersectional theoretical framework, disability critical race theory (DisCrit), I sought to center the voices of students and faculty of ...
“We Still Miss Some of Them”: A DisCrit Analysis of the Role of Two 4-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions in Racially Diversifying the K–12 Teaching Force
Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education
Background/Context: Although some research has been conducted on the experiences of preservice te... more Background/Context: Although some research has been conducted on the experiences of preservice teachers of color who attend Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), little cross-institutional, qualitative research—disaggregated by type of MSI—exists on the potential of MSIs to prepare and graduate teachers of color. This article examines how teacher preparation programs and professors at two 4-year public Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs)—a type of MSI—respond to two barriers to the profession for Hispanic and Black students: state licensure exams and being underserved in their K–12 education. Focus of Study: At both institutions, white students were overrepresented, and Hispanic and Black students were underrepresented, in the population of students admitted to a teacher preparation program. Through a conceptual framework of “servingness” and an intersectional theoretical framework, disability critical race theory (DisCrit), I sought to center the voices of students and faculty of ...
Emergent Concepts of Inclusion in the Context of Committed School Leadership
Education and Urban Society
Inclusion of students with disabilities within general education settings is increasingly accepte... more Inclusion of students with disabilities within general education settings is increasingly accepted as the desirable response of school systems to student learning differences. It has triggered districtwide reforms that are differentially enacted and realized within different schooling contexts. This study explores meanings of inclusion that were produced when three school leaders in a large urban school district adopted buildingwide initiatives to facilitate inclusion. We interviewed building leaders, families, and teachers within three public schools over a period of approximately 11 months. Data disclosed that the enactment of initiatives at each school reflected particular understandings of disability as well as relations with teachers and families. Our analysis showed that schoolwide commitments to inclusion can simultaneously produce forms of exclusion, erase dis/ability as a form of diversity, and neglect to understand parents and families as “experts” on their children. We ar...
Following the Path of Greatest Persistence
We, monsters: an autoethnographic literature review of experiences in doctoral education programs (Kind of)
In this paper, we take up an autoethnographic review of literature on doctoral programs in order ... more In this paper, we take up an autoethnographic review of literature on doctoral programs in order to engage notions of doctoral subjects. While the paper basically proceeds by taking up and entwining these methods, it is neither/both an autoethnography nor/and a literature review. Rather, this work – like many spaces of a doctoral seminar – emerges as an uncontainable, unpredictable monster. We have also placed a kind of “I” at the center of this project, and yet use a posthuman reading of what this “I” might be. We search for a preconfigured “I” in the literature and create an “I/we” of doctoral experiences that never quite exists and yet moves and haunts us. We take up a tentative (post-)monstrous position that recognizes our cruel attachment to the “good” doctoral student, a subject that remains the inevitable (im)possibility of graduate school. Reviewing literature as an ethnographic practice and looking at ethnography as textual helps us smash these methods together. Yet, at any...
Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 2018
I explore how my subjectivity makes possible my reading of a “feminist” image/text in a New York ... more I explore how my subjectivity makes possible my reading of a “feminist” image/text in a New York City subway car. I am struck by its potential for thinking about sexism, capitalism, subjectivity, space, and desire and use exemplary methods to read the implications the image/text has for feminist theory. I am stuck because I wonder if my reading is bound by the tasks/desires of a graduate student and use feminist non-representational geography to map how the spaces of graduate school and subway collided in this stickiness. Applying these theoretical and affective connections, I engage in a visual analysis of the image/text that provides space to wonder if discourses of anti-capitalist resistance make possible and sustain social relations that continue to oppress women. My reading also engages—yet leaves open—the question of whether writing about (academic) cultural images/texts is an act of significance or fictitious social capital.
Following the Path of Greatest Persistence
Journal of curriculum theorizing, 2018
I explore how my subjectivity makes possible my reading of a “feminist” image in a subway car. I ... more I explore how my subjectivity makes possible my reading of a “feminist” image in a subway car. I am struck by its potential for thinking about sexism, capitalism, subjectivity, space, and desire. I am stuck because I wonder if my reading is bound by the tasks/desires of a graduate student. After offering a surface, conventional reading of the image, I use exemplary methods to read the implications it has for feminist theory and use feminist non-representational geography to map how the spaces of graduate school and subway collided, allowing certain thoughts to stick to my reading. I wonder if discourses of anti-capitalist resistance make possible and sustain social relations that continue to oppress women and whether writing about (academic) images/texts is an act of significance or fictitious social capital. Engaging a reflective stance, I interrupt my reading to better understand the impact of graduate studies on reading cultural images/texts.
Preparing teachers for diverse K-12 populations generally focuses on educating white women at Pre... more Preparing teachers for diverse K-12 populations generally focuses on educating white women at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) to teach students of color. This approach often focuses exclusively on race/ethnicity and essentializes teachers of color at PWIs as diversity experts. Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) graduate many teachers of color; yet, the continued focus on PWIs leaves unknown how these teachers experience diversity education. This paper explores how students at an MSI engage with the concept of dis/ability as a form of diversity. Informed by how dis/ability studies, critical race theory, and DisCrit intersect with curriculum studies, I examined my students’ written discussion board responses in a diversity course that I teach at an MSI. I used multiple analytic tools to illuminate in their work the explicit mentioning of dis/ability, as well as affective encounters with equity and social justice outside the realm of discourse. I demonstrate how my students h...
Preparing teachers for diverse K-12 populations generally focuses on educating white women at Pre... more Preparing teachers for diverse K-12 populations generally focuses on educating white women at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) to teach students of color. This approach often focuses exclusively on race/ethnicity and essentializes teachers of color at PWIs as diversity experts. Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) graduate many teachers of color; yet, the continued focus on PWIs leaves unknown how these teachers experience diversity education. This paper explores how students at an MSI engage with the concept of dis/ability as a form of diversity. Informed by how dis/ability studies, critical race theory, and DisCrit intersect with curriculum studies, Schwitzmann examined her students’ written discussion board responses in a diversity course that she teaches at an MSI. She used multiple analytic tools to illuminate in their work the explicit mentioning of dis/ability, as well as affective encounters with equity and social justice outside the realm of discourse. She demonstrat...
NYU Review of Law and Social Change, 2020
The number of people in the United States receiving Social Security Disability Insurance ("SSDI")... more The number of people in the United States receiving Social Security Disability Insurance ("SSDI") and Supplemental Security Income ("SSI") benefits has expanded significantly since the 1980s. However, current law still prevents many disabled Americans from receiving this financial assistance. The SSDI/SSI process relies on the medical model of disability, which locates the problem of not being able to work in an individual's capacities. The social model of disability, on the other hand, suggests that inaccessible work environments, rather than a person's physical limitations, exclude disabled people from gaining employment. In this Article, we use the social model to problematize the barriers that disabled people face when they seek SSDI/SSI benefits. In line with the social model, we highlight the narratives of disabled people seeking benefits to reveal the problems in the SSDI/SSI system. We conclude by utilizing the social model to suggest ways of reforming the SSDI/SSI process that recognize the agency of disabled people and are ultimately more humanizing than the current ways of thinking about and prob-lematizing this process.
Emergent Concepts of Inclusion in the Context of Committed School Leadership
Education and Urban Society, 2020
Inclusion of students with disabilities within general education settings is increasingly accepte... more Inclusion of students with disabilities within general education settings is increasingly accepted as the desirable response of school systems to student learning differences. It has triggered districtwide reforms that are differentially enacted and realized within different schooling contexts. This study explores meanings of inclusion that were produced when three school leaders in a large urban school district adopted buildingwide initiatives to facilitate inclusion. We interviewed building leaders, families, and teachers within three public schools over a period of approximately 11 months. Data disclosed that the enactment of initiatives at each school reflected particular understandings of disability as well as relations with teachers and families. Our analysis showed that schoolwide commitments to inclusion can simultaneously produce forms of exclusion, erase dis/ability as a form of diversity, and neglect to understand parents and families as "experts" on their children. We argue that the structural implementation of inclusion premised on placement of students with disabilities in a general education setting leaves intact and unquestioned school-based norms of ability that render both students and families as lacking.
Preparing teachers for diverse K-12 populations generally focuses on educating white women at Pre... more Preparing teachers for diverse K-12 populations generally focuses on educating white women at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) to teach students of color. This approach often focuses exclusively on race/ethnicity and essentializes teachers of color at PWIs as diversity experts. Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) graduate many teachers of color; yet, the continued focus on PWIs leaves unknown how these teachers experience diversity education. This paper explores how students at an MSI engage with the concept of dis/ability as a form of diversity. Informed by how dis/ability studies, critical race theory, and DisCrit intersect with curriculum studies, I examined my students’ written discussion board responses in a diversity course that I teach at an MSI. I used multiple analytic tools to illuminate in their work the explicit mentioning of dis/ability, as well as affective encounters with equity and social justice outside the realm of discourse. I demonstrate how my students have varied understandings of difference even in a space that explicitly prioritizes social justice, equity, and diversity. Using DisCrit problematizes the assumption that experiences of being marginalized along one line of difference translate into an automatic understanding of diversity along another and highlights the affordances of centering dis/ability studies in diversity education.
Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 2018
I explore how my subjectivity makes possible my reading of a “feminist” image/text in a New York ... more I explore how my subjectivity makes possible my reading of a “feminist” image/text in a New York City subway car. I am struck by its potential for thinking about sexism, capitalism, subjectivity, space, and desire and use exemplary methods to read the implications the image/text has for feminist theory. I am stuck because I wonder if my reading is bound by the tasks/desires of a graduate student and use feminist non-representational geography to map how the spaces of graduate school and subway collided in this stickiness. Applying these theoretical and affective connections, I engage in a visual analysis of the image/text that provides space to wonder if discourses of anti-capitalist resistance make possible and sustain social relations that continue to oppress women. My reading also engages—yet leaves open—the question of whether writing about (academic) cultural images/texts is an act of significance or fictitious social capital.